Concern. Fear. Anxiety. Uncertainty.
Rowan University President Ali Houshmand has been cycling through these emotions since he first heard reports of the bombing in Iran, his homeland.
Any relief he might feel over the death of a leader who devastated the country for nearly 50 years is overshadowed by the overwhelming worry for the dozens of family members he still cannot reach.
Any hope for a new political order is tempered by fear over how disruptive and destabilizing these events could be — for Iran, for the region, and for the world.
Any attempt to plan for the coming days, months or years seems futile in the face of one undeniable reality: No one knows what will happen next.
“I want to make sure this gets to some resolution as soon as possible because it is getting harder and harder every day to function as a person,” he told BINJE. “It impacts everything: The way you sleep, the way you eat, the way you work, the way you think.
“I have no certainty. I have no idea what the outcome will be. It is very difficult.”
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The stress of the moment has been building for weeks and months — if not years and decades.
Houshmand, one of ten children, left Iran in 1975 to study in London before arriving in the U.S. in 1983. He has returned only occasionally since, but he has always kept close track of the country’s pulse.
All of his siblings still live there. He and his wife have more than 50 extended family members back home, most in or around Tehran.
He said he last spoke to his sister a few days before the bombing began, but he has been unable to reach anyone since. A text to one of his brothers on Sunday never went through.
“I am so worried because bombs are coming constantly,” he said. “You could be near a building or anywhere in the city and it could happen. I’m so concerned. I’m so worried about my family. I just want them to be safe.
“I just want to get a phone call that says they are OK.”
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Houshmand makes no secret of his disdain for the Iranian government or the Supreme Leader, who was killed in the initial attack.
“Do I like what’s happening?” he asked, then answered. “There are two answers to that. When any civilian or ordinary person gets killed, it breaks my heart. But I honestly have zero respect for the government. I consider them a terrorist government.
“Even though I genuinely do not like to see any creature die, it doesn’t hurt me to see that happen, because the damage those people have done over the past 47 years has been massive.
“Iran is the seventh-wealthiest country on Earth in terms of resources. They have turned Iran into one of the poorest countries on Earth. That’s what they have done.”
Houshmand has not returned in ten years. His last visit, he said, did not go well. The government knows he speaks out.
“They harass my sister and my brother,” he said. “I cannot go back as long as this government is in existence. If I do, they will kill me.”
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Houshmand supports the removal of Iran’s leadership, but he does not believe that is the primary motivation behind the U.S. and Israeli campaign.
He believes this fight is fundamentally about energy.
“The future of the world economy, and who will be the dominant economic force globally, depends on who controls energy,” he said. “That is the engine that runs any economy.”
He connects the situation in Venezuela to what is happening in Iran.
“Those two countries have a giant amount of oil and gas,” he said. “In fact, if you combine oil and gas, Iran is the number one energy producer in the world.”
China, he noted, has long understood this, investing heavily across Africa and Central Asia to secure resources for its rapidly growing, AI-driven economy. He believes the U.S. is trying to catch up by securing access to energy in places like Venezuela and Iran.
“This is the big reason this is happening now,” he said. “Stopping terrorist activity is definitely important, but when you put such a massive armada together, it’s not just so that you can kill a few terrorists. It’s significantly bigger than that.”
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Overthrowing governments is never easy. And it is always messy.
Houshmand’s anxiety stems from thinking through all the possible scenarios ahead — most of them bleak.
Could Iran’s retaliatory bombing of neighboring countries ignite a larger regional conflict? Or even a world war?
If Iran’s government collapses, the country could fracture into five or six warring states, as Yugoslavia did in the early 1990s.
There would be no winners in that scenario, Houshmand said.
A bloody civil war could leave millions dead, while millions more flee toward Europe, creating yet another global crisis.
The potential return of Reza Pahlavi, son of the Shah deposed in 1979, may not provide a solution either.
“Let’s assume the army suddenly changed sides,” he said. “There could be a transition. It could happen.
“But things are messy at this level. You never know what will happen. As a result, I’m concerned. I’m worried. But at the same time, part of me is hopeful that something good could happen.”
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Houshmand has lived in the U.S. for more than 40 years and has been an American citizen for more than three decades. He leads one of the state’s most important institutions of higher education.
And he knows that — in an instant — none of that may matter.
If Iran successfully attacks U.S. troops, whether abroad or on American soil, he fears what the backlash could look like.
“The thing that really scares me: What if an American gets killed and people say, ‘Well, he’s an Iranian, let’s go after him,’” he said. “Little do they know where I stand.”
It’s why he carries his American passport at all times.
It is all part of the pervasive anxiety that has been building for some time.
“It’s a very messy situation, and I really don’t know which direction it is going,” he said. “My hope is that it goes in the right direction.”
